Published On 22 May 202622 May 2026Pep Guardiola is more than a football manager, using his high-profile platform to highlight causes close to his heart.Legendary Liverpool manager Bill Shankly may have believed football was “much, much more important” than life or death, but for Guardiola, several things outside the “beautiful game” matter almost as much.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe 55-year-old Spaniard will step away from the Manchester City dugout on Sunday after winning 20 trophies in 10 years.From Palestinian children to Catalan independence and homelessness in the United Kingdom, Guardiola has strayed outside the borders of his job to bang the drum for a diverse range of causes during that time.He has made no bones about using his position as a podium to “speak up to be a better society”.Guardiola’s most recent foray into sensitive political territory has been his passionate embrace of the predicament of the Palestinian children in Gaza during the two-year war with Israel and their suffering in the aftermath.The war, which began after Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel, has killed at least 72,568 people in Gaza. Victims included children from toddlers to late teens.Hundreds of thousands of displaced people still live in tents, and conditions remain dire despite a ceasefire that came into effect in October.The devastation is acutely felt by the youngest in society, a topic Guardiola felt sufficiently important to miss a pre-match news conference and attend a charity event, Act x Palestine, in Barcelona in January this year.With a Palestinian keffiyeh draped around his neck, he went on the offensive. Advertisement “I think what we think when I see a ch …
